Namibia

No. There is no investor category in the Immigration Control Act 1993 and no statutory capital threshold. What agencies market as a Business Investment Permit, or an investor permit, is simply an ordinary section 27 employment permit issued to someone employed by their own company. Agency figures for a supposed minimum contradict each other, ranging from N$2m to N$3.95m to N$4m, while another agency admits there is no minimum at all. Treat any NAD threshold you are quoted as pure marketing.

In practice, no. Decisions are frozen. In Immigration Selection Board v Knoche [2025] NAHCMD 180 (17 April 2025), the court found that the Board had refused permanent residence based on a fixed assets test with no basis in section 26(3)(d), and ordered the Board to issue it. Execution was stayed pending a Supreme Court appeal, and the Ministry used that stay to suspend all permanent-residence decisions. Reportedly around 55 applications are stuck, some for 18 months. Filing now buys a place in a queue that is not moving, with no hearing date in sight.

No. Namibia runs a pure source-based system, so foreign income of residents is not taxed at all. There is also no capital gains tax generally, no wealth tax, and no inheritance, estate or gift taxes. That makes it one of the best tax propositions in Africa. A 10% dividend tax was announced effective 1 January 2026, but the enabling Income Tax Amendment Bill remained under legal review at July 2026 and should be treated as not in force. The tax system is excellent. The immigration system is the problem.

No, and for a multi-citizenship family this disqualifies Namibia outright. Section 5(1)(g) of the Citizenship Act requires an applicant to be willing to renounce the citizenship of any foreign country. Section 5(8) makes the grant entirely discretionary, with no reasons given and no appeal. Section 7(1)(a) then strips Namibian citizenship from a naturalised citizen who later voluntarily acquires another nationality. Namibian-born children are constitutionally protected under Article 4(8) and may hold dual citizenship freely. The restriction applies only to the naturalising parent.

It takes longer than the marketing suggests. The real figure is 10 years, not five. The Constitution Second Amendment Act 7 of 2010 raised Article 4(5)(b) from five to ten years of continuous ordinary residence, and the marriage route from two to ten. Crucially, only permanent-residence time counts toward that clock. Employment-permit time does not. With permanent residence currently frozen, the only path that actually accrues has stopped. Namibia's own Permanent Mission to the UN was still publishing the pre-2010 text when checked, so do not rely on sources that look official but are simply out of date.

No. Namibian law does not count time spent only on a temporary permit toward the residence required for naturalisation. As a separate matter, the Supreme Court held in Minister of Home Affairs and Immigration v Prollius [2020] NASC 1 (19 March 2020), heard together with the Holtmann matter, that domicile under the Immigration Control Act cannot be acquired while a person is present only on an employment or visitor's permit, even with a proven intention to make Namibia their permanent home. The decision is frequently miscited as Holtzmann. The reported name is Prollius, and the domicile point turns on the Immigration Control Act rather than the Citizenship Act. The honest advice is to enjoy Namibia's territorial tax treatment as a permit-holder, and to abandon any plan that depends on reaching permanent residence or citizenship through work-permit years.

This is a single-developer real estate scheme with no statutory basis. Henley's own Namibia Residence by Investment page states that the process is under government review. The product amounted to USD 365,000 into one private development, President's Links Estate at Walvis Bay, wrapped around an ordinary work permit. There is no investor permit in the Act to support it. The Namibia Investment Promotion Act 9 of 2016 was never brought into force, and the replacement Bill is still not law after roughly a decade.

This is a clean, inexpensive, honestly designed six-month visa administered by the Namibia Investment Promotion and Development Board. It requires USD 2,000 a month for the applicant, USD 1,000 for a spouse and USD 500 per child, plus a NAD 3,300 application fee. But it is explicitly a visitor product. It is non-renewable, you may only reapply 12 months after expiry, and it builds no path to permanent residence or citizenship. Namibia also remains on the EU AML high-risk list despite its FATF delisting in June 2026, so expect some banking friction.